Community Corner

Bones, 1788 Coin Found at Crayola Dig

Construction workers find artifacts in Centre Square outside Crayola center.

A construction crew working on making the Crayola Experience look more futuristic instead dug up a few pieces of Easton's past.

When digging outside Crayola's building in Centre Square, workers found a collection of bones, two shards of pottery, an oyster shell and a coin minted before George Washington became president.

The bones, turned over to the Northampton County coroner, likely came from an animal, according to both Kristen Luise, Crayola Experience's marketing and sales manager, and Becky Bradley, Easton's planning director.

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They may have come from a long-ago butcher shop, Luise said.

The coin, gone green with age, was virtually unreadable, but if you turned it over in the light, you could read "1788" on its surface.

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"It is likely that the artifacts are discarded pieces from colonial and post-colonial market stands that are known to have occupied the City's Center Square," Bradley said in an e-mail Wednesday afternoon. "Certainly exciting, the small pieces of redwear and white porcelien pottery, typical of the time, remind of the important history of Easton as a regional marketplace."

Bradley said she had spoken to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission about the discovery. The PHMC is reviewing the excavation of the site because it's part of a National Historic District.

She had noted earlier in the day that the find needs to be reported under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

"It doesn't necessarily mean we found Native American bones," Bradley said.

It also doesn't mean that the discovery will have to stop work for very long.

Crayola is at work on revamping both the outside and inside of its building in downtown Easton and plans to reopen May 24.

In addition to major renovations and additions on the inside, the company is putting a large crayon-theme mural along Pine Street and crayon sculptures in Centre Square.

It was this last project workers were beginning to install Wednesday when they made their find.


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